The review by former Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski has found that a series of management processes at Essendon broke down, failed or were short-circuited relating to the club's controversial supplements program.

It was launched in February shortly after the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) revealed its investigation into the program devised by sports scientist Stephen Dank.

Media reports have suggested that Bombers players were regularly injected with anti-obesity drug AOD 9604 as well as thymosin, which is banned by ASADA.

The report does not cover the use of AOD 9604, a drug the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed was banned from 2011 because it was not cleared for human use by any national health authority in the world.

However Evans said the report "pulls no punches" about processes at the club in the period from November 2011 to August 2012.

The report found that there was a lack of clarity about who was in charge of the football department.

"A number of management processes broke down, failed or were short circuited," the report's summary said.

"Problems occurred in selection, recruitment processes, induction processes, management of contractors ... in the football department.

"In particular the rapid diversification into exotic supplements, sharp increase in frequency of injections, the shift to treatment offsite in alternative medicine clinics, emergence of unfamiliar suppliers, marginalization of traditional medical staff, etc, combine to create a disturbing picture of a pharmacologically experimental environment never adequately controlled or challenged or documented within the Club in the period under review.

"Compliance rules existed but normal controls during an abnormal period were insufficient to check the behaviours of some people who may have contravened accepted procedures, and the CEO and the board were not informed."

'Club let down'

Key recommendations:

Pioneering work with supplements and "exotic treatments" should be left to the Australian Sports Commission

Clear framework required - club doctor should be signing authority for all medicines, supplements

Blanket bans of injections and I/V drips not recommended, but detailed records vital

Chief executive must be accountable, cannot be bypassed by coaches

Bad news must be passed up the line quickly, not shielded from management

Executive should report regularly to board on progress of remedial actions, and share with the AFL

Evans acknowledged the club's failings in the period covered.

"Escalation, supervision, those procedures and remembering that the coach put down some guidelines as to how the supplement program was to run - the risk management around those guidelines clearly let us down," Evans said.

"It's an institutional failing. We as a club take responsibility. I've apologised today. There will be some change. There already has been some change.

"There will be ongoing change to implement the recommendations that are in this report. The board will be committed to that and there's still some deliberations to happen as a result of the report which the board will sit down and talk to over the course of the coming days and weeks."

Evans repeated Essendon's refusal to concede that illegal substances had been used at the club.

It's an institutional failing. We as a club take responsibility. I've apologised today. There will be some change. There already has been some change.

David Evans

The chairman said the substances given to players was still a matter for ASADA to investigate.

But he said the team's medical advice had given the club "a great deal of comfort about ... what may have been given to players."

"We have got the help from two pharmacology experts in Dr Andrew Garnham and Professor Ross McKinnon. They have been advising the board for the last three months and we're getting more and more confident," Evans said.

"There was nothing banned that was given to our players."

No decisions would be made by the club on personnel until the conclusion of the ASADA investigation.

The full report will remain confidential to the board, the AFL and ASADA.

Election brought forward

[Supporters] can make a call as to whether I remain as a board member of the Essendon Football Club.

Essendon chairman David Evans

Evans said the inference that practices were kept in-house, away from senior management was something the club would prioritise in investigating.

"I think there's still some things to come out in the AFL-ASADA investigation about what happened through the course of 2012," he said.

"I think what you've seen here in the report in the recommendations would suggest to you that the escalation of bad news and concerns need to go up the chain and that's something the report deals to and we as a board take that on."

Evans said he had to take responsibility for the failings happening on his watch as chairman, and that he would bring forward his re-election to November this year.

"Action and change will occur, but it comes to the board when we've got all the facts and right now there is still a very significant part of this process which is the ASADA and AFL investigation that is not complete yet," he said.

"The buck does stop with me. I am chairman of the board, this has happened under my watch. I was elected for a three-year term at the AGM last year and I will bring forward my re-election and I will go to an election at the earliest possible time which will be November of this year.

"I act at the pleasure of the members and supporters of this football club and I think they have a right for me to put myself up for re-election and they can make a call as to whether I remain as a board member of the Essendon Football Club."